Page:The Origin of the Bengali Script.djvu/40

20 (v) inscription on the pedestal of an image of Bodhisattva from Sāhet Māhet (the ancient Śrāvastī);

(vi) inscription on an umbrella-staff, now in the Indian Museum, probably found in the ruins of Sāhet Māhet;

(vii) inscription on the pedestal of an image of Bodhisattva found at Sāhet Māhet;

(viii) fragmentary inscription on a fragment of a sculpture discovered at Rājagṛha (Rājgir), in the Pātnā District;

(ix) fragmentary inscription on the pedestal of an image discovered at Rājagṛha;

The records of the 1st century A.D. fall into two distinct and separate classes.—

I. The Eastern variety of the North-Indian Alphabet of the Kuṣāṇa period, earlier variety. All the inscriptions enumerated above belong to this class. Six years ago, I stated, that inscription No. VIII belongs to the class of Epigraphs known as inscriptions written in the Northern-Kṣatrapa alphabet, but now I agree with Dr. Vogel in calling them by the new name "Early Kuṣāṇa." Inscription No. I. is by far the oldest inscription of the Kuṣāṇa period, discovered up to date, in North-Eastern India. It was incised on the edge of a slab of stone, which is at present lying under the Bodhi tree, at Bodh-Gaya. It was in a very bad state of preservation